Details revealed for 300: Rise of an Empire

Posted January 7, 2013 - 19:05
by
CB Droege

There will likely be naval combat involved since, despite the second name-change, the film will still be depicting the battle of Salamis. Historically, Artemisia I of Caria was one of Xerxes I of Persia’s allies, and her only military role was as a naval commander in the Battle of Salamis, which Persia lost after Xerxes failed to take Artemisia’s strategic advice.

That loss became a turning point for the conquest of Greece by Xerxes. When he was unable to overcome the Greek navy at Salamis, he stopped expanding into Greek territory. The film will show how this loss, combined with other factors, played into the events of 300, and explain why Xerxes ambitions stopped at Sparta, despite his victory.

Of course, in reality, the battles probably did not truly occur that near the same time, though we only really know they were both held in the final year of Xerxes campaign against Greece.

"It takes place in the same time, you start a little earlier but then you see that it’s like a different point of view, a different camera, a different angle," said co-star Rodrigo Santoro in an interview early last year. "While that battle was happening, the one that you saw in 300, there was another battle happening next to it and you will have a chance to see all of that happening and how they interact."

"It would be about Xerxes at first, but then they changed the whole thing," he said in an interview with CBR this week. "I would say that you get to know a little bit about [Xerxes'] backstory, which I thought is pretty cool."

Santoro, who reprises his role of Xerxes from the first film, doesn’t seem disappointed that the focus of the film was taken away from his character. When asked if the new film would be a good match to the style of the original he said, “I think it will match, because the idea is matching - characters and style and all that. Especially because they're calling it like a spinoff, you get bits of the first movie. There's a place where they meet, the first movie and the second movie, but it's a different director. I didn't see the movie yet, the final result, but the experience - I mean, Zack was pretty much involved because he wrote it and he's producing it. His hands are there, but Noam will have his own take on directing it. I think it's going to be pretty awesome, and the fans are going to be pleased."